International trade is what powers the modern, global economy! But Google's bean-counters have taken a horrid protectionist turn by insisting on domestic beer for the search engine's Friday "TGIF" events.

A tipster reports:

Smoot-Hawley it ain't — but, google's just implemented its own horrid "buy american" policy without fanfare. Specifically: the BEERS at the company's famed "tgif" event on late fri afternoons — once a delightful array of Pilsner, Heineken, Beck's and Carlsberg Elephants — have morphed into a sad pick of Bud, Miller, Coors. Nothing was announced: it just happened! A cost-cutting move? Maybe: any googler with a taste for real beer will happily turn to tap water (since the company's discontinued bottled water too, in an obvious cost-saving moved disguised as ecological conscience;-) rather than imbibe such swill, so the sad excuses for bottles can be paraded again the following week for no money down. No idea what's happening at international location — hopefully googlers in dublin or zurich can still enjoy beers worth that name, even while their US colleagues are forced to penance via the sad array of domestic brands:-(